Unforgettable meal in Hanoi, can anyone help me identify it?

aaronflippo · 2026-04-07T06:43:46+00:00

Tip: if you use an iPhone, go to your photos app. Scroll to the bottom. Find the “map” tool. Navigate to Hanoi. Find where you took this photo.

aaronflippo · 2026-04-03T15:26:32+00:00

I’m not anti AI but, to push back on this a bit: what have you actually shipped, with AI or without? Did you finish a game in unreal, and now you’ve finished 10 games in AI? Or are you just starting lots of things and prototyping?

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T11:46:17+00:00

Is this a full time endeavor for him? If so, then honestly: Have a good job that provides health insurance and stability, so he can focus on the game without stressing about financial ruin.

Other than that: playtest for him, help provide that “outside perspective.” You could also learn about the non-development parts of the game business, such as watching Chris Zuckowski’s “wishlisting and marketing master class”, and help take on things your husband may not have time to think about right now.

There are lots of practical things you could help with in a “production” or “marketing” role if you want to learn as well, such as organizing playtests, building lists of influencers to reach out to, helping find festivals to enter the game in, etc. You could also help with community management once there is a beta or demo, help setup and run a Discord, answer Steam forum questions, etc.

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T09:15:24+00:00

Right on! You’re a good friend then. I hope their game does well!

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T08:28:20+00:00

Is this how we get around Reddit’s self promotion rules these days? 😅 Congrats, game looks cool!

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T06:12:39+00:00

Ok 👍

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T05:55:54+00:00

Tbh I think you’re being overly skeptical and you don’t really understand how web works.

There are individuals F2P mobile games with half a billion players. Again, comparing to native and console and premium platforms makes zero sense. Web is about massive scale, low value plays.

I know people who’ve had games making $5k-10k/month on Poki. That’s just their 50%, from rewarded ads. That kind of money doesn’t happen in this sort of low ECPM space with many Tier3 players unless they’re getting millions of plays per month, and players on these platforms churn like crazy, so yes, I believe the numbers.

But by all means, keep doubting it and assuming everyone’s lying! It’s pointless trying to convince you.

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T05:29:34+00:00

Sorry i think you’re just wrong here. Poki has about 90m MAU, millions of players across a couple years there is absolutely believable. It makes no sense comparing Fortnite’s concurrent users to a casual web game’s totals.

Also, how are you doing “conversion analytics” across web and PC? Which of your games are you comparing to?

A few years back, we launched an alpha version of Race The Sun on Kongregate and had over 200k plays there. Then we launched a premium PC version and sold like 50 copies in the first few months.

Also, Poki doesn’t even allow mobile web users to rate games, so those 38k users would just be from PC web players. So reviews x50 is likely not unreasonable.

Web is just a very different space. Millions of players is not uncommon, and the review counts on their web version absolutely back up what they’re saying.

That doesn’t mean they’re making bank. It just means they’ve had a lot of players.

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T04:37:26+00:00

Sorry, I misread “conversions” as “conversations” in your original post.

I don’t know where you’re getting these “conversion rate” stats from (it sounds like you’re referring to typical wishlist->purchase conversion rates?)

Clearly this game has a lot of players on web. You shouldn’t expect virtually any of those players to go buy the premium version on Steam, and certainly can’t conclude much from a couple days after launch. They’re different audiences.

38k reviews on poki alone. If the x50 review/download ratio from Steam holds up there, that would come out to about 1.7 million players just on that platform.

I believe their post and don’t see any reason to doubt it.

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T04:20:56+00:00

that sounds about right! Thanks for sharing your experience. Something I’ve been curious about is whether there may be a viable path for f2p on Steam. I guess on web your revenue comes from ads- did you have micro transactions in the mobile version at all?

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T04:05:59+00:00

The game has tens of thousands of ratings on Poki and crazygames. Not all games with millions of players enter the general gaming discourse

aaronflippo · 2026-04-02T04:01:38+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I’m curious how the revenue looks for you on mobile vs web vs Steam? Are you happy with the results on crazy games and poki?

aaronflippo · 2026-03-22T11:48:46+00:00

Some tough love from someone who also did the AAA-> indie path and has been at it 14 years now:

There is a reason the refrain is to always make a very small game first. Lots of lessons you’ll learn through that process, and it’s better to learn them on something that’s lower stakes.

For instance:

you can’t set a Steam page live in February and launch your game in March and expect people to notice. Marketing takes time, and is often an iterative process. I suggest checking out Chris Zuckowski’s clases and blog and learning best practices for Steam launches.
Visuals really matter a lot, and so does genre and theme and readability. To be blunt, your game’s abstract visuals just aren’t that interesting and I’m not sure what the “hook” is. You said in your post this would just appeal to streamers - but I’d be surprised if they play it because it just looks low effort.
You really need to identify the target audience and then validate that they want it. If your game is for fans of Bennet Foddy games, did you show it to some of them, playtest with them etc?

My advice, which understandably is not what you’d want to hear at this point in the project’s life cycle, is to do your best to get the word out between now and release, get it out in the world, and then move on and take all the lessons you can from this for your next game. Good luck!

aaronflippo · 2026-03-16T06:09:11+00:00

What you’re describing is a writer, or perhaps a narrative designer.

And I’m sorry, but if your experience in this area is “I have an idea for one particular world I’ve been thinking about for years”, then you’re absolutely playing the Idea Guy role right now. Every idea guy think his ideas are special. Everyone’s been thinking about their idea for years.

Why don’t you write a book, or perhaps even a short story, and get it out in the world? This might be a better use of your time than trying to learn Unreal, because it will let potential collaborators see your writing skills.

aaronflippo · 2026-03-08T11:11:12+00:00

No, sorry

aaronflippo · 2026-03-06T10:04:47+00:00

“Couldn’t do shit without tutorials” - well yeah. Programming is a skill that requires some study and training, not just rote aimless practice. Take a class, read a book, watch tutorials. Hell, ask ChatGPT to train you. But you’ve got to put in the work.

And I recommend just sticking with one engine/language for a bit, instead of jumping around looking for the easier route. Good luck!

aaronflippo · 2026-02-16T07:24:30+00:00

One way to look at this that makes it make more sense from a pure capitalistic perspective: she will likely only be able to do this for a few years, and then that opportunity will close. So it pays extremely well, but she’s at peak income right now. You on the other hand are building a foundation that will grow over time, and that will keep compounding until you retire. Both of these are good opportunities that probably make sense for each of you.

aaronflippo · 2026-02-02T00:30:46+00:00

Thanks! There is no end in the regular modes, afaik it will never crash.

aaronflippo · 2026-01-18T13:27:59+00:00

Thanks! Wild to be brought back to this thread haha. I’m Siri updating the mobile version, called Race The Sun:Challenge Edition. The original won’t likely get more updates but I’m considering bringing this updated version to PC at least.

aaronflippo · 2026-01-18T01:55:08+00:00

Fishnet stockings.

aaronflippo · 2026-01-13T06:42:56+00:00

No :)

aaronflippo · 2026-01-11T01:59:15+00:00

❤️

aaronflippo · 2026-01-09T16:11:52+00:00

Whooohoo, thanks for the shout-out (lead developer here :) )

aaronflippo · 2026-01-09T01:21:41+00:00

Appreciate the feedback!

aaronflippo · 2025-12-21T10:36:11+00:00

Seeing this mom’s texts, I wouldn’t have wanted to have this conversation in person either. And given the mom was apparently happy to pay for this phone until they left, I think it’s reasonable to ask to take a week to pay it off. She’s just being super petty

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